


What did they do to Pink?

by ytcompassrose



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for Together Alone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 09:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17261615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ytcompassrose/pseuds/ytcompassrose
Summary: The past few cycles have been a whirlwind of the old and new.  Pink Diamond returned! (But how?) White Diamond spoke! (Through her pearl, anyway.) Then a ball!And then, well, things gotreallyconfusing.Welcome to Era 3...?





	1. The Barracks

_What did they do to Pink?_

Rumors tend to spread quickly in the quartz barracks. The cubby rooms echo with the sounds of rowdy sparring and loud, playful gossip. But today, the barracks are eerily quiet. Any agate watching now would be surprised to see such silence among the off-duty soldiers. But once the agate strode away, the whispers would resume.

_"I heard Pink Diamond fused."_

_"I heard a Jasper fused with Pink's pearl"_

_"No, it was an Amethyst. One with limb enhancers."_

_"Where did you hear that?"_

_"I was there. I saw it."_

_"I saw it too. A Ruby and a Sapphire too, and a pair of Jades."_

_"Who did Pink fuse with?"_

_"I don't know. She stood by the throne like a pearl, but i never saw her gem."_

_"Is it true Pink Diamond came down from her throne to greet the Amethyst runt?"_

_"It couldn't be."_

_"I don't know. I hadn't arrived yet."_

_"It is. I think it was the Amethyst Pink brought back from Earth"_

_"And the Ruby and Sapphire fusion looked like the tall blocky one she also brought. I think. "_

_"I couldn't see all that well in the square. SOMEONE's hair was in my face."_

For a moment, the laughter and sounds of scuffling were almost normal. But before long, the Citrine accuser managed to pin the fluffy-haired accused Jasper to the ground. The latter blew a raspberry, then pulled herself up on the former's arm, and the serious atmosphere returned.

_"Yellow disrupted the other fusions and carried away Pink and the other, still together."_

_"Where did they put her?"_

_"I don't know."_

_"Some start to Era 3."_


	2. The Back Halls

Few pearls were present at the ball. Apart from the Diamonds' announcing their presence, there wouldn't be much for them to do. But some, still as statues and decoratively posed, had seen the events. And slowly, in the back halls of Homeworld, the word spread.

_"Pink Diamond fused."_

_"Her pearl fused."_

_"With a quartz."_

_"Yellow Diamond took her away."_

_"Other fusions tried to defend her."_

_"Pink's pearl" "Her Amethyst" "A Sapphire" "A Ruby" "A Lime Jade" "A Teal Jade"_

_"They were shocking."_

_"They were brave."_

_"They were foolish."_

_"They were beautiful."_

_"I have dreamed of them."_

_"My Iolite has fused in secret. If she had been there, she might have joined them."_

_"My Petalite" "My Seraphinite" "My Hessonite" "My Peach Beryl" "My Turquoise" "My Serpentine" "My Goshenite"_

_"Me. With a Coral. My Rhodochrosite saw, but said nothing."_

_"In an old arena, I saw a Milk Quartz and a Ruby. They had three legs."_

_"I saw a Peridot fall from a flash of light in an alley. I never saw the other, but I heard them try again as I walked away."_

_"My Aquamarine didn't bring me, but I heard her crying, after. She had hoped. She had almost joined in, though it would have been her first time."_

_"I never told."_

_"I was forced to tell."_

That some were forbidden to tell was unsaid but acknowledged.

_"I never saw them fuse, but I saw My Emerald order them shattered for it."_

_"Era 3. Things are changing."_

_"If we're lucky."_


	3. Blue Diamond

Where had she gone wrong? Pink should have known better! This made no sense! 

Blue had not even gone near the darkroom. She knew the very SOUND of Pink's fury would send her into another spiraling burst of sorrow and confusion, and her court could not bear such a thing, not when there was so much to do. Blue had never been particularly avid for paperwork, and unlike Yellow, she had been neglecting her work for too long. Hundreds of unopened reports from thousands of years ago. 

But distracting herself with work felt wrong. She could not keep her mind off the disasterous ball. She could not ignore Pink's baffling actions. So, she abandoned the reports and went to the old extraction chamber to think and feel in peace. She turned up the heat until the steam obscured even the door. Her comb sang soothingly, and she surrendered to her thoughts. 

The sequence ran through her mind again and again. The Ball going well. The dancers spinning in their places and moving as the music required. The observers standing tall in neat rows, framing the dance floor. Then Pink and that organic creature leaping down from the throne. The Music grinding to a stop, the dancers and observers stopping to stare. Pink and the organic exchange a few words, too soft to be heard at such a distance, then.

Then the two joining hands and spinning. Not like the poised and measured dancers, but wildly. Light springing from their joined hands, from Pink's gem - 

Her comb's song was dissolving into hiccups and sobs. Tears were running down her face.

Why had Pink done it? With the courts watching - with _White_ watching - _why?_

Didn't she remember - 

_She doesn't remember. She lost her memories on Earth._

But surely she would remember _White_. How could Pink have lost so much but changed so little?

Comby's small voice broke her tearful reverie. _"Perhaps Pink Diamond has changed more than you have seen?"_

That must be it. Whatever happened on Earth, whatever took away her memory, whatever changed her form, it had altered something more in Pink. Why else would she lead a rebellion? Why else would she want to stay there? Why else would she forget the order of gemkind? 

Why else would she fuse with an organic?

_What did they do to Pink?_


End file.
